New York Tower Sees $50m Foreclosure

It’s never quite clear how the high-end property market in Manhattan and the top works in the global art market are connected, except in the expectation that both are discretionary purchases driven more by global liquidity than need of any kind.

Even without a true sense of causation, it is worth paying attention to the ultra-high-net-worth property market for behavior trends that might also influence the art market.

New York has now seen a massive mortgage foreclosure on a $50m apartment in Extell’s One 57 tower:

Apartment 79, a full-floor penthouse that was the eighth-priciest sold in the building, is scheduled for auction on July 19, according to real estate data firm PropertyShark. The owner of the condo, a shell company listed in public records as One57 79 Inc., bought the 6,240-square-foot (580-square-meter) residence in December 2014 for $50.9 million, according to New York City records.

In September 2015, the company took out a $35.3 million mortgage from lender Banque Havilland SA, based in Luxembourg. The full payment of the loan was due one year later, according to court documents filed in connection with the foreclosure. The borrower failed to repay, and now Banque Havilland is forcing a sale to recoup the funds, plus interest.